A Nation by Design

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According to national mythology, the United States has long welcomed people from around the world, offering refuge and opportunity. However, the history of immigration reveals a different narrative. Even before the xenophobic backlash against European and Asian immigrants in the late nineteenth century, various social and economic interest groups manipulated immigration policy for their own ends. Aristide Zolberg explores this complex history from the colonial period to the present, illustrating how immigration policy has served as a tool for nation-building. He argues that the engineering of immigration policy has been a consistent theme since early American history, yet it has often gone unnoticed due to its local and state-level execution, particularly during the slavery era when federal power was limited. Zolberg examines the fluctuating opinions on immigration throughout American history, highlighting the influence of business interests, labor unions, ethnic lobbies, and nativist ideologues in shaping policy. He also analyzes how legal migration, illegal migration for low-wage jobs, and asylum-seeking are currently influencing debates over immigration. This thorough account provides rich detail and impeccable scholarship, revealing America's ongoing struggle to shape the immigration process to create the desired population.